Wetzel was a Visiting Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory through 1996. In 1997 he joined the High Tech Research Center at Meijo University Nagoya, Japan. In October 2000 he joined Uniroyal Optoelectronics as a Senior Epi Scientist and Green Project Manager. He was responsible for new MOCVD epi processes and developed a production process for high brightness green GaInN/GaN LEDs.

Since March 2004 he is a Future Chips Constellation Professor and Associate Professor of Physics at Rensselaer. The Constellation comprises three chaired faculty who develop new concepts for light emitting devices and optoelectronics. Dr. Wetzel's work has been published in some 110 papers that received over 1500 citations.

Research Interests:

Wetzel’s research centers on the electronic band and defect structure of wide band gap semiconductor materials and devices in epitaxy and spectroscopy. Energy efficiency in high density energy conversion is the prime motivation for his group's work. Group-III nitrides offer a wide range of electronic bandgap and controllable ionization levels and therefore are ideally suited for power electronic circuitry, light emitting diodes, and solar cell junctions over a wide range of the visible and UV spectral region. Our work thrives to develop new material and device schemes that translate to tangible commercial products for the energy efficiency economy.